The government has announced additional economic support to help businesses most affected by the Omicron variant of coronavirus:
• Businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises, and more than £100 million discretionary funding will be made available for local authorities to support other businesses
• Government will also cover the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for coronavirus-related absences for small and medium-sized employers across the UK
• £30 million further funding will be made available through the Culture Recovery Fund, enabling more cultural organizations in England to apply for support during the winter.
There is also continuing financial support. For more information cab be obtained by searching for 'Omicron support for businesses' on GOV.UK.
Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme
If your business is an employer with fewer than 250 employees, and you’ve paid Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to your employees for absences linked to coronavirus-related sickness or self-isolation, you could be eligible for support.
You will receive repayments at the relevant standard rate of SSP that they paid to their current or former employees for any eligible periods of sickness starting on or after 21 December 2021.
You will be able to reclaim the costs for up to two weeks of SSP for an employee who takes time off because of coronavirus, regardless of whether they claimed for that employee under the previous scheme.
You will be able to make claims retrospectively from mid-January.
Full guidance, including eligibility and how to make a claim, will be published on GOV.UK in due course. In the meantime, you can find out more information by searching for 'COVID-19 economic support package' at GOV.UK.
Time to Pay arrangements
If your business is facing difficulty in making a tax payment, HMRC stands ready to support any business impacted by the coronavirus pandemic through their Time to Pay arrangements.
They will be offering businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in particular the option of a short delay, and payment in instalments, on a case-by-case basis, as part of this. Search GOV.UK for more information about 'Time to Pay'.